RocketCam

This project started when I read an article in Make Magazine about hacking a Rite Aid one-time use camcorder to mount in a model rocket. I hadn't launched model rockets since I was a kid, so the article immediately sparked my inner hacker.

I first built a SR-71 Blackbird rocket I had laying around the basement as kind of a "re-introduction" to rocketry (which, as you can see above, I never painted)

Then, I bought a camera at Rite Aid, hacked it, and installed it the nose of a D-sized Estes rocket, the Canadian Arrow.

The first flights were at 9 acres park in Redmond, WA on Sunday, September 23, 2007. The movie below is the result of the first 4 flights. For the next launch, I’m going to mount the parachute to the top of the nosecone, so you can view the ground on descent. Stay tuned!

You can subscribe (via iTunes) to my rocketcam video podcast to get the latest videos automatically. Or, here's a link to the rss feed.

Watch the quicktime movie of the first test flights.
Or, download the quicktime file (m4v, H.264). It works on the iPhone as well!

I also uploaded the video to You Tube, but the quality is not so great: